"SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based. It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6936328.ece
Remember when a small group of scientists convinced the world that man was causing global warming? That is the question we'll be asking ourselves in a few years....then we'll laugh and laugh.
My worldview has prohibited me from simply taking this global warming theory and believing it. See, I believe that this world was created by God; created to sustain itself and support life. Asserting that carbon is causing global warming, essentialy places the blame for warming on human existence (since humans breath out carbon). If the existence of humans was bad for the environment, God would have created an alternate race called the Na'vi on a planet called Pandora, a race that didn't exhale carbon.
Worldview matters. There are a thousand scientists with a thousand different explanations. They all interpret the same data, the same facts, but their conclusions are different because of their worldview.
Everyday, I see more and more evidence that supports my worldview, one with God at the center; this is encouraging.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The Missing Link
Every year around election time, banners go about a plethora of local issues. Fire, police and school levies abound; the local government just needs a little bit more so they can provide better services. The problem is that we all need just a little bit more.
As I was driving the other day, I realized that what is missing is not a little bit more funding for our local services, but a little bit more community - within the community.
When your house is burning down, it's good to get everyone to safety; but then maybe we should think about saving our house. When your neighbors house is burning down, it might be a good idea to help them rather than just stand back and watch. Our society is gradually becoming trained to stand back and let the "professionals" do their job. Granted, some fires get huge and require special equipment, some criminals can't be reasoned with and some kids just don't want to be in school, but let's take some responsibility for ourselves.
Who's job is it to teach our children how to read, write, add and subtract. It is nice having a system that teaches the basics, but we cannot stand by and expect that system to do everything the way we want it. We cannot expect any system to be funded perfectly and not ever miss a step.
Do we expect our government to feed every hungry person in the country, when we have access to them every day? How much more efficient would it be to simply give a meal to someone, rather than pay someone to setup a program that organizes people to collect food and hire others to distribute it? There is always waste in the buearacratic system.
It may be necessary one do gather with your fellow brothers and sisters on this earth to stand together and say STOP!, when an armed robber steals from a bank. Can we really expect the police to simply be everywhere all the time ready to stop all lawbreakers? Perhaps we should stand together and defend our own communities. Do we really expect the police to handle things while we stand idely by?
Of course some of these examples may be extreme, but the concept is important. Giving more of our resources to the government will never solve the problem, it will only continue to fuel our reliance on government, ultimately forcing us to forget how to care for ourselves and how a community should act in mutual support of each other.
Conservative principles that put people first, lift up the poor and needy, and create success in our own spheres of influence start inside ourselves. We need to stop expecting everything from others and start expecting a little bit from ourselves.
We see the hearts and minds of liberals in the right place in most places, but the left in this country must be insane if they think the problems they champion can ever be solved by more waste and less efficiency.
My unanswered questions are brought up again: When has more government and a socialist mindset ever increased the standard of living for everyone? When has government ever solved the problems they set out to solve?
As I was driving the other day, I realized that what is missing is not a little bit more funding for our local services, but a little bit more community - within the community.
When your house is burning down, it's good to get everyone to safety; but then maybe we should think about saving our house. When your neighbors house is burning down, it might be a good idea to help them rather than just stand back and watch. Our society is gradually becoming trained to stand back and let the "professionals" do their job. Granted, some fires get huge and require special equipment, some criminals can't be reasoned with and some kids just don't want to be in school, but let's take some responsibility for ourselves.
Who's job is it to teach our children how to read, write, add and subtract. It is nice having a system that teaches the basics, but we cannot stand by and expect that system to do everything the way we want it. We cannot expect any system to be funded perfectly and not ever miss a step.
Do we expect our government to feed every hungry person in the country, when we have access to them every day? How much more efficient would it be to simply give a meal to someone, rather than pay someone to setup a program that organizes people to collect food and hire others to distribute it? There is always waste in the buearacratic system.
It may be necessary one do gather with your fellow brothers and sisters on this earth to stand together and say STOP!, when an armed robber steals from a bank. Can we really expect the police to simply be everywhere all the time ready to stop all lawbreakers? Perhaps we should stand together and defend our own communities. Do we really expect the police to handle things while we stand idely by?
Of course some of these examples may be extreme, but the concept is important. Giving more of our resources to the government will never solve the problem, it will only continue to fuel our reliance on government, ultimately forcing us to forget how to care for ourselves and how a community should act in mutual support of each other.
Conservative principles that put people first, lift up the poor and needy, and create success in our own spheres of influence start inside ourselves. We need to stop expecting everything from others and start expecting a little bit from ourselves.
We see the hearts and minds of liberals in the right place in most places, but the left in this country must be insane if they think the problems they champion can ever be solved by more waste and less efficiency.
My unanswered questions are brought up again: When has more government and a socialist mindset ever increased the standard of living for everyone? When has government ever solved the problems they set out to solve?
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Big Change, Small Package
Legislating choice is an oxymoron, but that's what our congress is trying to do.
What's the big deal about a 2,000 page bill that deals with a complex system of health care and insurance?
The democrats in congress clearly think bigger is better. The latest bill is over 2000 pages and nearly impossible to understand. If you question the waste of government, ask yourself why they make things so complicated that it needs a team of highly paid lawyers to interpret. In the end, even the people who supposedly wrote the bill have no idea what side-affects will result from its implementation.
Size doesn't matter.
The original United States Constitution was about 4 pages. On top of that, the average person could understand what the document said with relatively little help.
4 pages changed the course of the entire globe and has shaped the globe for over 200 years. The United States constitution set out to protect EVERY individual from one of the most destructive forces in history...government.
When individuals are the priority, the solution becomes very clear. It seems that our leading democrats have put the needs of a few over the needs of the many; this has never worked in the past.
More pages, more cost, more waste.
Less government simply means more choice, less waste, more freedom.
Call your congressman and speak your mind.
What's the big deal about a 2,000 page bill that deals with a complex system of health care and insurance?
The democrats in congress clearly think bigger is better. The latest bill is over 2000 pages and nearly impossible to understand. If you question the waste of government, ask yourself why they make things so complicated that it needs a team of highly paid lawyers to interpret. In the end, even the people who supposedly wrote the bill have no idea what side-affects will result from its implementation.
Size doesn't matter.
The original United States Constitution was about 4 pages. On top of that, the average person could understand what the document said with relatively little help.
4 pages changed the course of the entire globe and has shaped the globe for over 200 years. The United States constitution set out to protect EVERY individual from one of the most destructive forces in history...government.
When individuals are the priority, the solution becomes very clear. It seems that our leading democrats have put the needs of a few over the needs of the many; this has never worked in the past.
More pages, more cost, more waste.
Less government simply means more choice, less waste, more freedom.
Call your congressman and speak your mind.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Government, Solving Their own Problem
This is part of the discussion that I take issue with, when our government talks about all the problems with the health care system.
President Obama gives examples of doctors doing procedures because they can get reimbursed immediately for large amounts of money. There was an article about the abuses of health care in the New Yorker last spring that talked about the same thing; specifically a town in Texas where Medicare dollars were being spent at a much higher per-capita rate than anywhere else.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande
The problem with the whole analysis is that we are essentially complaining about how a government-run program like medicare is prompting higher costs in health care and then arguing that we need more government intervention to solve the problem.
The government has created their own problem to solve.
The entire argument actually gets to the point that conservatives have been shouting about for a long time. GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION CAUSES HIGHER PRICES.
We continually hear about how we need to "lower the costs of health care", when in actuality, our current government (and some in the past) just want to pay for the health care, which in turn requires giving them more power and us less freedom.
Lower costs, more choice, more competition will ONLY happen when the government is LESS involved. There is no example of government bringing down the costs of anything. Government involvement only creates more overhead and more waste.
Free markets would require patients to pay what they can. Prices would ultimately adjust and fall in line with what Doctors need and patients can pay. With government involvement, no price equality can exist.
We aren't going to fix our small Medicare/Medicaid problem, by creating one large conglomerate problem - Government-run health care.
The fact remains that when you are spending someone else's money, you don't really care how much of it you spend.
President Obama gives examples of doctors doing procedures because they can get reimbursed immediately for large amounts of money. There was an article about the abuses of health care in the New Yorker last spring that talked about the same thing; specifically a town in Texas where Medicare dollars were being spent at a much higher per-capita rate than anywhere else.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande
The problem with the whole analysis is that we are essentially complaining about how a government-run program like medicare is prompting higher costs in health care and then arguing that we need more government intervention to solve the problem.
The government has created their own problem to solve.
The entire argument actually gets to the point that conservatives have been shouting about for a long time. GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION CAUSES HIGHER PRICES.
We continually hear about how we need to "lower the costs of health care", when in actuality, our current government (and some in the past) just want to pay for the health care, which in turn requires giving them more power and us less freedom.
Lower costs, more choice, more competition will ONLY happen when the government is LESS involved. There is no example of government bringing down the costs of anything. Government involvement only creates more overhead and more waste.
Free markets would require patients to pay what they can. Prices would ultimately adjust and fall in line with what Doctors need and patients can pay. With government involvement, no price equality can exist.
We aren't going to fix our small Medicare/Medicaid problem, by creating one large conglomerate problem - Government-run health care.
The fact remains that when you are spending someone else's money, you don't really care how much of it you spend.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Hurry and take your time already
I find it interesting that in matters of war, where men and women are putting their lives on the line everyday, President Obama is taking his time deciding how to support them, thoughtfully weighing all options. This isn't a bad thing, mind you, but interesting compared with other issues on the table.
We are told that the world is coming to an end through man-made global warming and that we must pass a tax on the air we breath; on top of the fact that health-care costs are so high that many people can't afford it, so we must pass legislation immediately to pay for those who don't have health insurance.
Why not put a little thought into these things?
Seeing that the more we learn about the proposed legislation for taxing carbon and a government run health care program, the less popular those solutions become, it starts to make sense.
The White House and leading democrats claim that the "far right" are trying to defeat needed legislation for the poor and sick in this country, yet republicans are in no position to stop any legislation. The delays are telling because many of the democrats have not bought-in to the radical changes being proposed. At least we know that there are still a bunch of leaders - both democrat and republican - who don't simply lock-step with the party leaders; they seem to be listening to their constituents who think the proposed changes will be bad for the country.
I am inclined to keep asking the question: When has more government involvement ever led to less spending and lowered costs? I see no evidence for this. If the goal was to truly lower health care costs, the government would get out of the way of doctors and hospitals. Demanding more power and more control does not lower costs.
We should all be demanding to get the right legislation done. Reforming health care for the sake of reforming health care will get us nowhere and could easily cause more harm than good. Taxing the air we breath is simply ludicrous.
We need to slow down and think about the decisions that will affect every person in this country. As for the men and women dying right now, maybe we should think about them before some ice that is 'supposedly' melting or giving health care to illegal aliens.
Actions speak louder than words. The priorities seem backwards to me.
We are told that the world is coming to an end through man-made global warming and that we must pass a tax on the air we breath; on top of the fact that health-care costs are so high that many people can't afford it, so we must pass legislation immediately to pay for those who don't have health insurance.
Why not put a little thought into these things?
Seeing that the more we learn about the proposed legislation for taxing carbon and a government run health care program, the less popular those solutions become, it starts to make sense.
The White House and leading democrats claim that the "far right" are trying to defeat needed legislation for the poor and sick in this country, yet republicans are in no position to stop any legislation. The delays are telling because many of the democrats have not bought-in to the radical changes being proposed. At least we know that there are still a bunch of leaders - both democrat and republican - who don't simply lock-step with the party leaders; they seem to be listening to their constituents who think the proposed changes will be bad for the country.
I am inclined to keep asking the question: When has more government involvement ever led to less spending and lowered costs? I see no evidence for this. If the goal was to truly lower health care costs, the government would get out of the way of doctors and hospitals. Demanding more power and more control does not lower costs.
We should all be demanding to get the right legislation done. Reforming health care for the sake of reforming health care will get us nowhere and could easily cause more harm than good. Taxing the air we breath is simply ludicrous.
We need to slow down and think about the decisions that will affect every person in this country. As for the men and women dying right now, maybe we should think about them before some ice that is 'supposedly' melting or giving health care to illegal aliens.
Actions speak louder than words. The priorities seem backwards to me.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Health Care Decline
Looks like the House votes on their version of the Health Care bill this weekend.
If you don't like people wasting your money, call your representatives and tell them no.
If you don't like people wasting your money, call your representatives and tell them no.
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